Central Election Commission proposes Mahiliou city executive committee to review its decision on determination of places for agitation

As it is stated in the answer from Lidziya Yarmoshyna, Chairperson of the Central Election Commission, to human rights defender Barys Bukhel, CEC offered the Mahiliou city executive committee to introduce supplements to its decision on determining the places for holding mass events connected with electoral agitation.

’The previous place that has been proposed for agitation by the executive committee, is situated in Chaliuskintsy Street, near house #64. This house is a four-stored building that sides with the city center of ceremonial services. Earlier, the ground near the former Culture Palace of the man-made fiber plant named after Kuibyshau in Chaliuskintsy Street 64a used to be the traditional place for all mass actions. At present, house #64a is in disrepair and is ringed with an emergency ribbon. That’s why we lodged a complaint, in which we demanded to specify the place for agitation and determine such places in all election constituencies,’ commented Mr. Bukhel.

He says that the regional election commission supported human rights defenders on this issue, and its secretary Liudmila Makaranka, stated that new places for agitation were to be determined at the sitting of the Mahliou city executive committee on 7 April. According to her, the appropriate information will be published in the Friday issue of Vesnik Mahiliova.

Other complaints of Barys Bukhel were dismissed. In particular, he asked for publication of the information about the places of work of members of election commissions so that the real representation of state officials in these bodies could be determined.

’None of my arguments were disproved’, states the human rights defender. ‘The answer of the Central Election Commission is unsubstantiated. They refer just to Article 34 of the Election Code, but duck all other articles, as they have nothing to oppose.’

Apart from this, the human rights defender complained against the establishment of the Mahiliou regional election commission almost a month before the official announcement of the elections, pointing at the information of the website of the Mahiliou regional executive committee, where the appropriate information was dated 28 December 2009. The Central Election Commission answered that it was a ‘technical mistake’.